This invention concerns a modular seat layout system for an automobile vehicle, this system concerning seats placed one behind each other in the normal utilisation position of the said seats. The invention applies especially but not exclusively to a seat of the second row located behind the front passenger seat in a conventional car.
Maximum modularity is increasingly sought in the layout of the seats in vehicles so that they can be arranged to provide maximum comfort for the users and, especially, to be able to obtain maximum load-carrying space if all seats are not used. To meet these expectations, a well-known solution consists in using removable seats, at least in part, which can be removed from the passenger compartment upon request to increase the load-carrying volume. A disadvantage is that the seat thus removed must be stored and therefore requires a place for this purpose, for instance in the vehicle owner""s garage. In addition, it is in general necessary to return to the place where the seat was removed to be able to reinstall it and again provide a seat for a passenger.
For various types of vehicles, it has already been proposed to attach the seats to the vehicle whilst allowing maximum load-carrying space to be freed without the need to remove the seat from the passenger compartment. Various solutions are currently used in conventional-type saloon cars which consist, in general, in folding the rear seat, either in full or only over a part of its width, against the rear of the backrest of the front seats. Often, for instance, the seat pan of the rear seat is raised towards the front seat and the rear backrest is folded down against the floor to take the place of the seat pan. The volume of the boot is thus considerably increased and the rear face of the backrest thus folded down extends the load-carrying floor space of the boot.
Document EP 0899152 shows another system where the seat pan is turned over remaining more or less in its normal utilisation position and the backrest is also placed rear face upwards extending towards the front the seat pan thus turned over. The lower face of the seat pan which is then facing upwards and the rear face of the backrest then form together a usable load-carrying floor extending from the boot of the vehicle.
In yet other systems, such as, for instance, the one described in document FR-A-2589800, the seat pan is raised as described above and the rear backrest, hinged on the seat pan, is also placed, resting more or less vertically, behind the raised seat pan and the front seat. The seat displacement kinematics are obtained by a set of hinged links connecting the floor of the vehicle, the seat pan and the backrest of the seat. In this system, with the seat pan in normal utilisation position, the backrest of the rear seat can also be pivoted towards the rear to a more or less horizontal position to form, with the seat pan, a bunk.
Moreover, vehicle front seats where the backrest folds forwards are also known, for instance, to facilitate access to the rear seats in vehicles with a single passenger door. But even when using this possibility of tilting the backrest of the front seat in combination with the folding of the rear seat as described above, the additional gain in load carrying volume remains low as the travel of the backrest remains limited and the overall size of the front seat remains high.
The aim of this invention is to propose another solution for the layout of the seats in the passenger compartment of a car which allows the load-carrying space to be modulated as best as possible to suit requirements without the need to remove the seats from the passenger compartment. The invention aims also in conserving maximum utilisation possibility of the seats by keeping them attached to the vehicle and therefore liable to be returned to normal utilisation position as soon as the unloading of the boot permits this. The invention also aims in getting best use out of all the space available in the vehicle when there is no passenger in the front seat. Lastly, the invention also aims at allowing these changes in layout to be made by simple operations.
With these targets in mind, the subject of the invention is a modular seat layout system in an automobile vehicle including at least two seats located one behind each other, that is one seat that will be designated the front seat and the other seat that will be designated the rear seat.
According to the invention, this system is characterised in that the front seat is attached to the floor of the vehicle by a first set of hinged items so that the seat pan of the front seat can be translated towards the front to be housed, in a forward position, in the space existing in front of the front seat when it is in normal utilisation position with the backrest extending more or less horizontally towards the rear from the seat pan, more or less at the location that the said seat pan occupies in normal utilisation position, and the rear seat is connected to the floor by a second set of hinged items so that the said rear seat can be folded and placed against the backrest of the front seat.
The designations front and rear are relative when applied to the two seats mentioned in the definition of the invention above. In a saloon car with two rows of seats, these are mainly the front passenger seat and the rear seat located behind the passenger seat, but the invention could also apply, for instance, to the seats of the second and third rows in a vehicle with three rows of seats.
The system according to the invention thus allows, thanks to discerning use of the space available in front of the front seat, to minimise the size of the front seat when not used by a passenger and, consequently, to minimise the residual size of the rear seat in the volume of the passenger compartment which can be used to increase the effective load-carrying volume of the boot.
In addition, the invention allows this gain in load-carrying volume to be obtained while conserving all the seats in the passenger compartment and also by conserving the possibility of normal use of the front seat in the case where only the folding of the rear seat on itself, as will be seen later, is sufficient to obtain the required load-carrying volume.
Preferentially, the backrest of the front seat is installed so as to pivot in relation to the seat pan and includes detachable locking means to connect the top of the backrest of the front seat to the body of the vehicle. Thus, the pivoting of the backrest towards the rear can be achieved easily when the locking means are released and these locking means ensure full safety required by preventing all unwanted pivoting of the backrest during the normal use of the seat.
According to a preferential arrangement, the second set of hinged items is arranged so that the seat pan of the rear seat can be raised more or less to the vertical by pivoting forwards and the backrest of the rear seat can be translated to position it behind the thus raised seat pan. Thus, even when the front seat remains in its normal utilisation position, an appreciable gain in load-carrying volume can be obtained by making the space taken up by the rear seat available for this purpose. The rear seat is then folded onto itself and raised behind the backrest of the front seat taking up a volume as small as possible. This then gives maximum boot volume, without removing the seats, only the combined thickness of the raised seat pan and the backrest of the second row seat reduce the length of the boot from the rear of the vehicle up to the seats of the first row.
From the position specified above, where the backrest of the rear seat is placed behind the raised seat pan of the said rear seat, the complete seat thus folded can be folded against the backrest of the front seat, the rear face of the backrest of the rear seat then being more or less horizontal and, preferentially, in a plane close to that of the boot load-carrying floor. Thus, for example, long objects can be placed in the boot of the vehicle, resting at the front on the rear face of the backrest of the rear seat.
To ensure the translation of the seat pan of the front seat to its forward position, the first set of hinged items preferentially includes two arms extending more or less parallel and hinged, on the one hand, in relation to the seat pan and, on the other hand, in relation to a seat base connected to the floor so as to form, with the said seat pan and the said base, a deformable parallelogram. The translation of the seat pan is then made along a trajectory more or less following the arc of a circle which allows the seat pan to be brought to its forward position at the front of the said base and at a level lower than the level of the seat pan in normal utilisation position.
Preferentially, to ensure conventional adjustment of the front seat in the forward-rearward direction, the longitudinal position of the base is adjustable in relation to the floor. In addition, this adjustment can be used, if applicable, to move the complete front seat as far forwards as possible thus freeing more space for folding the rear seat.
The support arms of the seat pan of the front seat are preferentially installed so as to pivot on lugs themselves hinged at one end on the framework of the seat pan and adapted so as to lock by the other end on anchor fittings attached to the base of the seat thus ensuring the link required for the seat in relation to the floor in normal use of the said seat. Also note that the trajectory of the seat pan in the arc of a circle, imparted by the pivoting arms, allows easy disengagement of the lugs from the anchor fittings when they are unlocked by raising the seat pan in relation to the base at the start of its translation movement. In addition, the hinging of the lugs on the seat pan framework allows the seat pan to be lowered still further when it is placed in forward position as will be seen later.
According to other technological arrangements of the design according to the invention, especially adapted to obtain the kinematics required for the various arrangements mentioned above while ensuring simple and rapid operation:
the second set of hinged items, for the rear seat, includes:
a front seat pan support, fixed and attached to the floor, on which the front of the seat pan of the rear seat is hinged,
a rear leg on the upper end of which is installed the backrest of the rear seat, which is attached to the seat pan by a pivoting link hinged on the leg and on the seat pan in the centre longitudinal part of this,
this system allowing the seat pan to be raised simultaneously with the movement of the backrest, therefore requiring a single operation to bring the seat of the second row against the backrest of the seat of the first row.
the system includes disconnectable anchoring means to connect in a separable manner the lower end of the rear leg to the floor of the vehicle to ensure rigid attachment of the rear seat to the floor in all cases where it can accommodate a passenger.
the backrest of the rear seat includes disconnectable locking means to connect the top of the backrest of the rear seat to the body of the vehicle.
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear in the description which will be given of a layout, in compliance with the invention, of the seats of the first and second rows of a car.